PRESS BRIEFING ON COMMUNITY OF DEMOCRACIES SEMINAR

 

While the United States was taking an admirable direction in seeking to promote democracy, it must be remembered that the roots of democracy were much longer than the present Bush administration’s policy, Mark Malloch Brown, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

Responding to a correspondent’s question, he said that previous American presidents had sought to promote democracy, as had José Ramos-Horta, Foreign Minister of Timor-Leste, who had won a Nobel Peace Prize for promoting democracy in his country long before President George W. Bush had taken it up.  At the United Nations, the promotion of democracy had inevitably to pass through the prism of complex political realities, which made it not always an easy, achievable objective.

Mr. Malloch Brown and Mr. Ramos-Horta were among the panellists briefing on “The State of Democracy in the World”, the topic of a day-long seminar held by the Community of Democracies being held today at Headquarters.  Others on the panel were José Miguel Insulza, Vice-President and Minister of the Interior of Chile, and Heraldo Muñoz, that country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

Earlier, Mr. Muñoz said that the seminar, co-led by the Permanent Mission of Chile and the UNDP, was a preliminary step towards a ministerial meeting to be held from 28 to 30 April in Santiago, Chile.  The Community of Democracies comprised about 100 countries that were committed to the advancement of the values of democracy, freedom and human rights.  Democracy was better promoted collectively because when countries pursued it individually they could be perceived as having a hidden agenda.

Asked who determined which countries were democracies, Mr. Muñoz said the Community’s convening group of 24 countries, which were preparing the upcoming Santiago meeting, had decided which countries should be included as full members and which should be observers, a category that grouped those countries whose commitment to democratic values was in doubt.  The group had decided a few days ago to exclude Nepal from the Santiago meeting.

Another correspondent asked whether the United States could more effectively promote democracy by acting with other countries.

Vice-President Insulza replied by saying that the Community of Democracies was an initiative begun at the end of the 1990s under the previous United States administration.  It could not be linked to any particular government.

Another journalist asked to what extent the elections in Iraq had sparked a cataclysmic and irreversible change in the Arab world, where democratic debate had been going on for a few decades.

Mr. Muñoz said it was too soon to say whether those elections would lead to a wave of democracy but, if they did, in fact, have a demonstrated effect, then everybody would welcome that.  Some countries in the Middle East, such as Lebanon, already had experience of democracy, so it was not absolutely new to the region.

The same correspondent asked about the effects of democracy in Latin America, where it had not proved to be the hoped-for panacea.

Vice-President Insulza replied that the region’s problems involved governance rather than ideology.  Some recent polls had indicated that while democracies were working well formally, people were dissatisfied with the lack of delivery in terms of good government.

Asked how the rise of the “new left” would impact democracy in Latin America, the Vice-President stressed that the so-called new left governments elected in Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay had been formed by democratic forces that had a long history of fighting dictatorship or in opposition to democratic governments.  Democracy was strengthened by the presence of such [ruling] parties in government and there was a good chance that they could work together to promote good governance in terms of delivery.

The big problem in the Americas was that there were still 200 million people living on less than $200 a year, which was also a problem of governance, he stressed.  There were also problems of security, involving not only terrorism, but also common crime, gang formation, drug trafficking and natural catastrophes, which were also related to governance or democracy.  There had been scandals within the political systems themselves, which must also be faced.  The changes in the governments of Latin America, and specifically South America, were very positive in the sense of bringing in forces that were democratic but at the same time dedicated to better delivery and better governance.

A correspondent asked whether Lebanon could hold genuinely democratic elections in May without Syrian interference.

Mr. Malloch Brown responded by saying that the Secretary-General’s Special Representative was in the region at the moment, trying to secure implementation of Security Council resolution 1559 (2004).  The Secretary-General had warned that some of the earlier exuberance surrounding last week’s demonstrations in Lebanon would need to be tempered by the reality of the fact that the country remained politically divided about the direction that its future should take.  Yesterday’s demonstrations organized by Hezbollah illustrated the strength of opinion on both sides of the issue.

What that showed was the indispensability of the United Nations, he said.  It was a United Nations envoy, not one from an individual country, seeking to find common ground among Lebanon, Syria, regional neighbours and outside countries, particularly France and the United States, the co-sponsors of resolution 1559.  It was also the United Nations that had been entrusted by the Security Council and the Government of Lebanon with the investigation of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s assassination.  No country could substitute for the Organization’s central role as honest broker and honest investigator.

Asked whether the Santiago meeting would set the criteria for membership of the Community of Democracies, Mr. Ramos-Horta said that one measure of a country’s commitment was how many international treaties on human rights and humanitarian law it had ratified and whether it had taken steps to incorporate those international values and norms into its domestic laws.  However, that was no guarantee that the laws would be implemented domestically.

He said Timor-Leste was more than prepared to be subjected to that test, having not only ratified all seven core international human rights instruments, but also established eight intergovernmental groups with non-governmental organizations which had travelled to each district explaining to the people the meaning of each treaty, as well as their rights and the Government’s obligations.  Timor-Leste was pioneering, with the Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, a new, simpler, less cumbersome treaty-reporting system and this year the Government would present its first report under that system.

Did the role of the United Nations as an honest broker entail treading more softly regarding Hezbollah despite resolution 1559 having called upon the group to disarm? a journalist asked.

Mr. Malloch Brown underscored that the United Nations needed to achieve compliance with all Security Council resolutions, but the role of negotiator and someone exercising good offices was to achieve their objectives in the stages that worked.  Diplomacy and negotiation were always the best way to achieve full compliance.

Referring to the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of States, a correspondent asked whether the United Nations Charter should be amended to provide for the promotion of democracy.

Mr. Malloch Brown replied that there was no proposal to amend the Charter in order to allow interventions on behalf of democracy, women’s rights or human rights.  However, what was sought was how compliance with international agreements could be strengthened and made more robust.  There was a very strong debate about the responsibility to intervene in situations like Darfur, where horrendous violence was taking place.

Mr. Muñoz added that the fact that the Community of Democracies worked so strongly within the United Nations was an expression of the democratic commitment underlying the Charter, as was the responsibility to protect, even in the absence of a formal resolution.

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